Forum Post: The 99% protest against the corporations with a raised fist, but support the corporations with the other hand with their dollars!
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 21, 2011, 8:22 p.m. EST by jrhirsch
(4714)
from Sun City, CA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I think the solution should be obvious?
We need to encourage lifestyle changes, watch what we are supporting when we make purchases.
When I spend, I think strategically...I'm exercising power, either vacantly or purposefully...I may be throwing away power or exercising power. Admittedly, I am not always able to buy the cheapest item on the market if I'm to ensure that my dollars remain in local pockets, but I consider that to be a small sacrifice and I can recover that premium by refusing to buy junk food...fast food...making my clothes last longer and buying fewer when I do need something new, but everywhere, always, refusing to buy from Corporate entities...often, small discount stores serve my purpose for household items so I don't go to big box stores.
No expense upon any Corporate goods or services or entertainment. Starve the Beast!!!
Let's make all of what you suggested "in fashion"! I love all of what you said!
It's a practice that everyone can adopt, everywhere, and it strikes at the root...in principle...of reckless spending, which Corporatism encourages, and nurtures the spirit of resistance, always upon one's mind and in one's hands, a kind of brooding consciousness that directly faces off against the Enemy, even in the smallest things, the smallest purchaces...a defacto boycott without the troubling identification of demands and ultimatums, just Withdrawal of support.
I, for one, never forget to promote this position as a unifying practice among all who hope to have some effect that strikes at the Beast...albeit individually pretty small, but together, united under the banner of attack upon Consumerism and Commercialism, a fine spirit of resistance that insists: Enough of Cooperation with the Beast!
While I'm not a crusader in the name of Religion, I do recall from my studies in the xtian tradition that the Word recommends that the good man/woman should be shrewd to understand the wiles of their Enemy, and to "Come out from among them and be separate." To me, this is a good example of the kind of spirit that applies to those who are devoted to the overthrow of the evident Evil of Corporatism, whose life's-blood is the buying and spending ethos of Consumerism. Hit them where they live, I say.
who is "we" ?
why dont "you" lead by example instead of telling others what they should do?
I only buy what I need. Everything else is a waste of this planets resources. Stop wasting ... stop the country.
You are a funny person.
why?
Believe it or not I actually do the vast majority of my Christmas shopping at small independent retailers where I can get unique handmade gifts at reasonable prices. I have no idea why people think they have to shop at Walmart... poor selection, poor quality products, and nothing but pissed off people everywhere.
Its pretty hard to avoid corporations for some things, like you kind of need Intel processors, but you can get computers built cheaper than you can buy them retail from the large manufactures... and the standard warranty is 1 year instead of 90 days at the place I purchase at.
People do need to get a little smarter about where they shop, plus they can get sweeter stuff that actually lasts for much cheaper if they bother to put in the effort.
Buying used is a great strategy to starve the corporations. Not a single penny goes to them and you get a bargain as well!
Totally! And you get such sweet stuff that way. :D
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A single day a year will not curtail corruption. Kill corruption by cutting off it's blood supply, money! Anything else is a fantasy.
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Yes, we buy clothes. GASP!!!!
Please rewrite and resubmit something coherent.
What will you accomplish by only using your right to free speech through protest? Almost nothing! The one percent laugh at your feeble protest, drinking champagne and eating caviar, looking down from their high balconies as the police violate your most fundamental rights. So what will make a real impact, one that even the corporations, the stock traders, the banks, and the governments that they are so intimately entwined with? They don't listen to your political vote! That system is rigged against you, courtesy of the one per cents enormous monetary influence. No amount of legislation will change your economic well being! If you patiently expect elected representatives to help you, don't hold your breath. They are the one per cent! Only you can make the difference! But first you must understand the cause of this injustice, and second, the great power that you posess to fight with. The very basis for all economic inequality is for one group to overvalue their goods and services while the other group undervalues theirs. If you trade two hours of your labor for another persons labor of one hour, will you become richer or poorer? Poorer of course! And who's fault is it? Yours! In your battle against the unfairness of this economic system, you ignore your most powerful weapon! Your dollar! It is your labor, in a portable form. It's not just a piece of green paper made of plant fibers. What it represents has great value! It is the only weapon that wall street and the corporations will take notice of!
So where do I use this weapon? At the source. The marketplace. This is where the battle must take place! Here you will find that a 1 pound box of cereal cost 3 dollars, yet the grain inside only costs 11 cents? Or why do you pay nearly 2 dollars for a soda at a fast food restaurant that costs pennies? Surely it isn't due to the high cost of water. Why does the name brand product always cost half again to twice as much? Are you that brainwashed to believe that a logo will guarantee you quality and status? It is amazing that the poor crave the very things that keep them in poverty. Don't buy name brands! Period! Buy generic, even better, buy used or make yourself! If you protest against these greedy corporations, but continue to buy their products, what will be the outcome? Nothing! You protest against the corporation on one side, but support the corporation on the other by buying their products. How will that make any change? Closing ports will only raise prices that you will pay for in the end. The objective of your protest is not to feel good about what you are doing by occupying a space or closing a place of business. The purpose is to make positive change in the balance of economic power! My God, if you can't see that, rip off those name brand sun glasses you wear that have been darkened by years of false advertising and empty promises. Open your eyes and use your mightiest weapon. You the 99 per cent must value themselves higher and the 1 per cent lower! It is the only form of protest that will make change! Protest with your dollar!
I would add this to the title area of your post.
I wholeheartedly concur with a good part of your argument, but I must point out your argument does have an achilles heel; the 1% have (almost) all the money! They can care less about the few bills in our pockets so long as we keep begging for them for our wretched petty livelihoods.
There is this story about this man who lived in a barrel (it was Socrates I believe.) Someone came along, and suggested to the man, "why don't you learn to bow to the king, and then you won't have to live in a barrel." The man answered "why don't you learn to live in a barrel, and then you won't have to bow to the king."
Sure, be smart on what and where you spend your petty change, but more important, be smarter on what you do to get that change. And most significantly, and most unfortunately, that petty change we hold, and how we may spend it, is too insignificant to cause the 1% to ruffle their skins. That change we hold has too little power. Revolution has many facets; lifestyle change and educating others are key, but also key is to undermine or at least deter the 1%. And if we are to do that, guerilla action (preferably focused and non-violent) in every form (closing ports, civil disobedience, occupying, strikes, downing services, et. al.) becomes the only viable course of action.
The one per cent owns 40 per cent of the wealth. The 99 per cent owns 60 per cent. That is not petty change. We have a clear advantage.
That is good, but it will take more than only exercising our buying power.
I'm not sure the 1% owns only 40% of the money. They might own all of it, and the rest of us are just using it. After all they are the ones printing it up. Good thing though not all wealth is in the form of money.
Our money is what feeds the corruption. Without our money, they will perish.
Allow me to reframe your comment; Us using their money feeds the corruption. When we stop using their money, and start making and using our own money ( that is money that we ourselves print or otherwise make); then we may have a chance.
There is this false idea out there that those green pieces of paper given to us for doing somebody's bidding, is "our" money. It sort of is, 'cause they were given to us, but the greater reality is that that money is theirs in the sense they are the ones that created it. (Check on any dollar bill. Is your name on it? I assure you, my name is not on it either. So its not ours.) As soon as we say we don't need those fool pieces of paper, that is when their power really disappears.
I wholeheartedly agree that using whatever money smartly is a smart thing to do. I'm just adding that there is much more to do beyond only that.
Yeah, but I'd say 99% of the 99% are still pre-occupied with what's on TV to make any sort of change.
We need to reach out to those who are not activists, not politically active. We need them to "wake up" from their MSM-induced dreams. If we can get them to not only tune out the TVs, and make even a tiny change in their lives, then we will win.
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